Ripples

Chapter 15

Final Moments

        My eyes slowly opened, dried tears crusted around them. I didn’t remember much of what happened. All I could remember was pain...and suffering. I felt like shit. I couldn’t remember exactly why, and I wanted to keep it that way. Whatever it was, I could tell it was bad. I let out a long sigh. I was lying down on a cold, hard floor. Somepony was laying against me, snoring. It was dark, and I couldn’t see who it was. I lifted a hoof to touch him. He stopped snoring, but continued sleeping. I prodded him several times until he awoke.

        “What?” he asked. It was Captain’s voice. I was about to say...something, but then I felt him jerk suddenly.        “Loste!” he said, extremely urgently.        “...what?” I asked, groggy and unfocused.        “Loste, do you know what is happening right now?!” he yelled. I could hear my other companions stirring in the background.        “LOSTE!” he screamed, and then slapped me across the face. It hurt, but no more than the hurt I was already feeling. I was starting to remember...an image of a creature entered my mind. I was beginning to make the connections from the previous event in my mind.        “Loste, speak! Don’t die on me, Loste! You can’t just die! We have to stop this right now!” Captain urged as he shook me back and forth. Stop wha...oh. Oh goddess...that. No, no, no, this isn’t happening. I am dreaming, this must be a dream...        “LOSTE!!” he screamed into my ear, causing me to jump.        “Please,” I begged, starting to cry. “Just...leave me...alone.” I laid back down. “We can’t stop it...Equestria is doomed.”        I could barely see, but Captain approached and slapped me once again across the face, causing my cheek to sting intensely.        “LOSTE! You are not the pony I used to know! Wake the fuck up!” he yelled, once again straight into my ear.        “Shut the hell up,” Rage said from behind me.        Captain stomped a hoof. “You don’t get it, do you? Equestria is being fucking ruined. Ruined! We have to get out of here and stop Discord from doing this! It isn’t right!”        Lights flickered on, blinding the four of us temporarily. As we came back to our senses, the light revealed a somewhat cramped metal shelter which housed us. A large monitor on one wall displayed the last face I would ever want to see in all of Equestria.        “Oh, but what if it’s already happened?” Discord said, and let out a maniacal laugh. “The chaos is wonderful! In the first five minutes alone, half of my adorable little creations brutally murdered each other! Here, let me pull up a camera feed.”        The screen flickered, and changed to show the remnants of Dodge City Junction. Bloody, desecrated, mutated and bullet-ridden bodies were actually walking around and fighting each other!        “Oh, by the way Captain, I love your work here.” Discord’s voice sounded. “The blood puts an interesting accent on everything, and it adds a very interesting twist onto the chaos here. Not only are the ponies hideous mutants, but they’re also zombies! Isn’t it wonderful?”        “SHUT UP!” Captain yelled, and charged at the screen. He sent his hoof in a fierce blow at the screen, cracking it on impact. The image remained, however a spiderweb of cracks appeared over most of the screen. Discord’s face reappeared.        “Oh, is somepony mad? That was a very expensive piece of equipment, if I remember correctly this one was built entirely using gems minerals Loste collected while he was still just a slave!”        Oh, somepony was going to pay for that...        “Oh yeah, and Loste, since you had been chosen as our special pony from the start...we kept some of your work as souvenirs, instead of using it for production like our other treasures. Would you like to see?        He is not serious...he is not going to put that on the screen...no...NO!        The screen changed. A large pile of bloody, severed pony heads rested around a large throne. The horror was still visible in their faces. They expressed grimaces of horror, pain, and fear. Some mouths were open in a scream, others tightly closed. Scars were visible where ropes had been tied across their faces.        Worst of all, sitting on the throne was Discord himself, resting his legs on a small pile of heads. His face was stretched into a wide grin, staring straight into my eyes...a crack from the screen passed through one of his eyes. He laughed once again, this time his most evil, mocking laugh yet.        No. NO. I began shaking from pure rage. “NOOOOO!!!!” I yelled furiously, and charged at the screen. I jumped and through myself straight into Discord’s face, shattering the screen and unleashing shards of glass all over me and my friends. Magical energy sparked from the destroyed monitor, coming in contact with my flank and paralyzing me. I fell to the floor, heavily cut and bruised from the glass. I couldn’t move.        Captain ran to me, clearing the shards of glass from around me. Rage and the red pony assisted by trying to get me to move. I wanted to talk, and tell them I was fine, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t fine. Discord is going to die. I am going to fucking kill that monster. Captain, Rage, and the red pony were suddenly flung from their positions against the wall by an invisible force, and Discord slowly walked in from the now-open doorway, barely visible from my point of view. He walked over to me, and knelt down to my face.        “I bet you’re wondering why you, of all ponies, was chosen for this? You’re special, Loste. You’re not like everypony else, you’re better than them. Each and every pony you’ve met is nothing compared to what you’re capable of. I had to make sure that power of yours was used effectively, and it was a tremendous help! Had you never come around, we’d be worse off than before you were severed from the slave network.” He smiled, looking into my eyes. That smile burned into my mind, igniting all of the fury held within me from events past.        “You’re descended from a princess, Loste. You inherited some immense magical abilities from your great grandmother. As you know, when Celestia committed suicide on the battlefield, it was so she could transfer her remaining magical ability to Princess Twilight Sparkle, to help her defeat us. But we captured her, and made her reproduce. Oh, how she tried to fight...she almost escaped a few times, that pesky little princess. But that’s when we discovered body control magic...all we needed to do at that point was wait until the perfect foal was born. And it was you!”        Discord snapped his fingers, and a party hat and blower appeared in his hands. He fastened the part hat to my head and blew the blower, causing it to unfurl and make a high-pitched noise. It mocked me, burning the noise into my eardrums.        “Oh, by the way...happy birthday, Loste!” Discord summoned a small present, wrapped in a blue box and fastened with a purple bowtie. He set it by my head. “Just open it when you’re ready. You’re free to go, you can do whatever you want. I don’t care anymore, my job is done. Just walk out that doorway, and I’ll teleport you far away. Your friends can come with you. Go celebrate your birthday, it’s still early in the morning. You can have a party, and invite all the mutant cannibal monsters you choose. I’m sure they’ll enjoy the opportunity!” Discord laughed one last time, snapped his fingers, and was gone. I could move again. I slowly pulled myself to my hooves.        Captain, Rage, and the red pony were in the corner of the room. Captain slowly walked towards me, and stopped in front of me. He closed his eyes, exhaled, and then embraced me in the biggest hug anypony had ever given me.        “Happy birthday, Loste,” was all he said. The red pony and Rage approached too, and joined in for a group hug. We stayed like that for a long time, that moment seemed like an eternity. I never wanted it to end, but after a few minutes, it still came to pass...just like every other good thing that has ever happened to me. The four of us walked towards the doorway, without a word. We did not know what lie ahead of us, but one thing was certain.        We would face it together.